It is an amazing place Fidgetbones, and good to hear that they take conservation very seriously . Love the way the penguins have learnt to avoid getting their feet sunburnt!
Looks and sounds like a fabulous trip Fidget. OH and I have been pondering a trip down under but lately I've been thinking time is short and we've been there already and your Galapagos trip now looks very tempting.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Monday 4th February 2019 Punta Vicente Roca, Isabela
Early start again. 6.30 am breakfast. I think there must have been a bit of merriment in the bar last night. Next to the Orange juice and Mango juice is a carafe of water with cucumber infused in it. It is marked Hydration water. They might as well have put “Hangover special”
Much calmer boat ride at 7.30am. Videos are a bit bouncy, taken from the zodiac, but the fur seal and hawk sighting are rare.
Landing at the jetty, we had to carefully walk through the sealions and piles of iguanas to get onto the Island. This is a walk over the lava fields.
We move on to a skeleton of what might be a pilot whale that washed up, and the remains were taken higher up on the island and laid out.
There are some huge fissures in the lava. I took a walking pole from the boat to help me keep my balance. Trainers grip well on the rocks. Walking boots would be too hot really . The cactus is a pioneer plant, one of the earliest to start and grow on the lava fields.
Mother and baby sealion. The lava lizard is catching flies attracted to the sealions.
Sealions are playing in the surf and a male is defending his beach.
Dead iguana has dehydrated and is almost sculptural.
We are not allowed to take any shells, so I took a photo. This shows green sea urchin shells, the spines of slate pencil urchins, as well as various molluscs.
Incredible wildlife and great photos Fidget bones, to be honest it makes me feel tired just reading about it! Must have been pretty tiring, although fascinating.
What I learned on this walk is that the wildlife are not scared of people at all. Baby sealions like to come and check you out. The rest just ignore you. The parks dept control the boats, they have a specific time slot. This boat gets to visit each place on its itinerary once a fortnight for a maximum of three hours. Many places, we are not even allowed to land, just cruise along the edges in the zodiacs. I know a lot of backpackers arrive in the main island for a few days, and think they have "done" the galapagos. We were there two weeks and have apparently seen 3% of it. Unless you are a researcher with special licences, or Mr David Attenborough from the BBC, you are unlikely to see more. We didn't see Pink Iguanas, or some of the rarer Tortoises, wrong time of year for Albatross and Whale Sharks. To see it all, you would have to make multiple trips at different times of year and very deep pockets.
Tuesday 4th February Caleta Tagus, Isabela Its name originated from a British warship that went through the islands in 1814 looking for Galapagos Tortoise for food.
OH goes on a strenuous hike to the caldera lake,(Lake Darwin) while I go on a zodiac tour of the walls of the bay.
There is 200 yr old graffiti on the walls of the bay, boats leaving a calling card when they called in here for fresh water.
This was a favorite spot for pirates and whalers, they stopped here in the safe harbour to take on fresh water. At the start of the walk, going up and passing the
staircase, is a small cave where inscriptions date to the
1800s.
Since the Galapagos became a World Heritage site, this graffiti has now been banned.
A gravel track leads into the interior, along Darwin
Lake. Various land birds were seen, Tree finches, mockingbirds, and dragonflies, and he saw the lava fields of Darwin Volcano.
Mockingbird
Lizard
View of the lava fields
Ancient graffiti
Darwin Lake contains saltwater and its depth is approximately 9m.
It has no fish or other special life. The lake lies within a tuff
cone.
I was feeling sick from the fumes from the zodiac engine. Note to self, make sure you are last on the zodiac and sit at the front. A wet bum is preferable to feeling sick. I am changing clothes three times a day due to sweating and getting wet bum on zodiac. I doubt I have enough clothes to make it through the fortnight.
usual subjects, boobies,brown noddies, some nice shots of the Ah ah (spiky hard sort , impossible to walk on )lava field.
However the fumes on the boat got to me, I had a cracking headache, took a load of pills and went to bed, missing the snorkeling, but going on the afternoon zodiac tour, which cleared my head a bit
Bahia Elizabeth on Isabela.
gentle zodiac ride through the mangroves, with turtles, herons, around the boats. Penguin swimming in the water. I sat at the front of the boat.
Amazing rock/lava formations . Sorry to hear you didn't always feel 100% , your OH must be tough, hiking around ! Looking forward to the next instalment!
Posts
Punta Vicente Roca, Isabela
Early start again. 6.30 am breakfast.
I think there must have been a bit of merriment in the bar last night. Next to the Orange juice and Mango juice is a carafe of water with cucumber infused in it. It is marked Hydration water. They might as well have put “Hangover special”
Much calmer boat ride at 7.30am. Videos are a bit bouncy, taken from the zodiac, but the fur seal and hawk sighting are rare.
Rocks showing dykes in rocks where tubes have filled up with magma.
Snorkelling at 10.30
Back to the Boat before the midday sun gets us.
Afternoon. 3.45 pm.
Punta espinoza, Fernandina.
Expedition walk on land.
Thank you for sharing - look forward to the next episode.🙂
Tuesday 4th February
Caleta Tagus, Isabela
Its name originated from a British warship that went through the islands in 1814 looking for Galapagos Tortoise for food.
This was a favorite spot for pirates and whalers, they stopped here in the safe harbour to take on fresh water. At the start of the walk, going up and passing the staircase, is a small cave where inscriptions date to the 1800s.
Since the Galapagos became a World Heritage site, this graffiti has now been banned.
A gravel track leads into the interior, along Darwin Lake. Various land birds were seen, Tree finches, mockingbirds, and dragonflies, and he saw the lava fields of Darwin Volcano.
Mockingbird
Lizard
View of the lava fields
Ancient graffiti
Darwin Lake contains saltwater and its depth is approximately 9m. It has no fish or other special life. The lake lies within a tuff cone.
I was feeling sick from the fumes from the zodiac engine. Note to self, make sure you are last on the zodiac and sit at the front. A wet bum is preferable to feeling sick. I am changing clothes three times a day due to sweating and getting wet bum on zodiac. I doubt I have enough clothes to make it through the fortnight.However the fumes on the boat got to me, I had a cracking headache, took a load of pills and went to bed, missing the snorkeling, but going on the afternoon zodiac tour, which cleared my head a bit
Bahia Elizabeth on Isabela.
gentle zodiac ride through the mangroves, with turtles, herons, around the boats. Penguin swimming in the water. I sat at the front of the boat.